Despite the film not generating as much interest as expected at the Toronto Film Festival, Margot Robbie has been praised for her performance in I, Tonya.

Now she’s revealed the brutal training she underwent to play disgraced former American professional ice skater Tonya Harding in the black comedy-drama.

“Sarah Kawahara, who actually choreographed for Nancy Kerrigan [Harding’s competition who she conspired to attack] was training me,” she told Wonderland.

“Before that point I thought I wasn’t too bad at ice skating – I used to play ice hockey. [But] I soon realised that I’d just been running on ice, and now there was no padding.

“My alarm would go off at 5.30am and I’d want to cry. Sometimes after sessions I’d get back into the car and weep.”

Robbie earned some positive reviews for her portrayal of Harding, such as Variety’s Owen Gleiberman who rated her performance as “canny, live-wire, [and] deeply sympathetic.”

In the same interview, Margot also shared her thoughts on being acknowledged for her looks, not her acting talent. 

“All the reading, all the acting coaching, and then someone reviews the movie or interviews you and all they do is focus on the aesthetics,” she lamented. 

“You think, ‘f*** you. You’ve totally discredited the work I did and it’s not fair!’” 

She also revealed her (clearly unfounded) fear that she wasn’t attractive enough to play Naomi Lapaglia in The Wolf Of Wall Street. 

“When I was playing Naomi in The Wolf of Wolf Street it was so high-tempo sexy. I was acutely aware that the line in the screenplay was ‘the hottest blonde ever,’ I’m clearly not the hottest blonde ever,” she said. 

“I was just terrified that people would see the movie and think ‘eugh! She’s not that great’”. 

If you’re unfamiliar with the thrilling true story I, Tonya is based on, listen up. 

In 1994, the world media was sent into a frenzy when U.S. figure skating champion, Tonya Harding, hired a hit-man to break her competitor Nancy Kerrigan’s right leg. 

The move would mean Kerrigan was too injured and unable to compete in the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. The attacker followed Kerrigan to a Detroit skating rink and after her practice, struck her in a corridor a few inches above her knee.  

Her leg was not broken and both skaters made it the Olympics that year. The bizarre plot to cripple Kerrigan had failed and she went on to take silver while Harding came eighth. Harding was banned from the sport as a result. 

The US release date for I, Tonya has just been announced as December 8, so the Australian release date should follow soon after.